Category Archives: typecasting

The Atelier Press came into being in 1970 as the private press of Stan Nelson. Stan has been interested in printing since the age of nine, and formerly operated as the Nelson Job Shop and later as Norse Custom Printing. After becoming aware of the world of Fine Printing, Stan chose to name his press […]

The British punch-cutter and typefounder Vincent Figgins (1766-1844) ran a notable London typefoundry and is credited with designing the first Egyptian (slab serif) typeface, which he simply named ‘Antique’ and released in 1815. Figgins was originally apprenticed to the typefounder Joseph Jackson, a student of William Caslon I, and established his own typefoundry in Swan […]

The history of Monotype dates back to the late 19th Century, when it introduced groundbreaking new technology that revolutionised the production of metal type for letterpress printing. Tolbert Lanston, the inventor of this technology and founder of The Lanston Monotype Machine Company, patented this mechanical typesetting system in 1887 and introduced the first hot metal […]

Located five miles east of Cheltenham in the shadow of an Elizabethan manor, the family-run Whittington press (established by John Randle in 1971) will be throwing open its doors on Saturday 1st September, accompanied by Presstival, an annual event for the delectation of printing and typography enthusiasts. Pat Randle, mastermind behind the event, has printed […]

This article has been extracted from an article on the BBC News Asia website, written by Cindy Sui and dated 1st May 2012. The movable-type printing system invented around 1040 AD helped to revolutionise the world by making books and other written material easily available. It is one of the most important inventions of mankind, […]

A delightful short movie by the San Francisco Chronicle showing Lewis Mitchell at work, casting type on Monotype machines in the basement at the Arion Press in San Francisco. “I thoroughly enjoy the sound of the machines turning, and seeing the type come out is a joy,” Mitchell said. He can tell by the sound […]

Extracted from a promotional booklet published by The Bauer Type Foundry, Inc. 235-247 East Forty-Fifth Street, New York. Publication date unknown. THE PRINTER has many opportunities of learning how a type is cut and cast, and it is important that he should have this knowledge. How the stage of cutting is reached, the work that […]

We’ve received an appeal from our friends at the International Printing Museum to help spread the word about The Ludlow Project, an effort to augment their collection of Ludlow matrices to be as complete as possible. They have brought the campaign to Kickstarter, where there have been a significant number of successful letterpress-themed projects. You […]

I recently had the great pleasure to return to Whittington again to exhibit at the Whittington Press Open Day 2011 and was delighted to watch – through the fug of fumes from the Monotype casters – brand new type being cast by Neil Winter (ex-Libanus Press). Since John Randle bought his first Monotype caster and […]